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This Saturday – Reuben’s Brews and Friends Beer Festival. Who are these friends?

Serendipity is a great thing and that’s how Kim and I ended up at Alvarado Street Brewing’s production facility in Salinas, California on the same day that Adam and Grace Robbings of Reuben’s Brews were there to create a collaboration beer with J.C. Hill, the head brewer and co-owner at Alvarado Street. Pictured above: Grace and Adam with J.C. (center) at Alvarado Street’s brewery in Salinas.

This is not intended to be one of those “neener-neener” things, I’ve actually got a reason for telling you about this, but if you want to read more about the beers we found on California’s Central Coast, see the story.

Seriously, Alvarado Street Brewing is a damn good brewery with lots of medals to prove it. Kim will tell you that the beers are some of the best she’s ever tilted. I’m a bit more reserved with my praise and temper my comments by saying they were better than expected and were the best beers from a new-to-me brewery that I’ve slurped in a long time.

That’s the kind of brewery Reuben’s Brews means when they say “and Friends.” Forgive my long-winded way of telling you that the Alvarado-Reuben’s collaboration beer is just one of the beers on the lineup card for Saturday’s Reuben’s and Friends Invitational Beer Festival at the Reuben’s Brews tasting room in Ballard.

Saturday’s event features beers from near and far, including beers from breweries like Funkwerks (Colorado), Modern Times Brewing (California), Great Notion Brewing (Oregon) and even Androit Theory Brewing (Virginia). Along with those, some local favorites. Complete list of breweries is below.

Beer Highlights:

Generally two beers poured from every brewery attending

Released in batches of 6 beers on the hour – starting at 11am until 4pm

Reuben’s Brews is partnering with Gorilla FC, the Seattle Sounders Supporters Club, to help build two tiny houses this year. This year’s invitational will help finance the build of two tiny houses – last year our invitational helped finance the building of one tiny house!

For the latest news and information about beer in and around Washington, visit Washington Beer Blog.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.